How to spot a bad MSP - The 7 warning signs that separate professional IT companies from the cowboys. These apply whether you're evaluating us or someone else.
What IT services actually cost - Industry benchmarks for endpoint monitoring, support plans, and cloud services. Real numbers from real MSPs.
@@ -334,7 +351,6 @@ ul.feature-list li:before {The right questions to ask - 10 questions that will reveal whether an MSP is proactive or reactive, transparent or hiding fees, local or offshore.
How to calculate ROI - Why the cheapest option often costs you more in downtime, security incidents, and lost productivity.
-Ready? Let's start with the red flags.
- -| Plan | Monthly Fee | Hours Included | Effective Rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Essential | $200 | 2 hours | $100/hour |
| Standard | $380 | 4 hours | $95/hour |
| Standard | $380 | 4 hours | $95/hour (MOST POPULAR) |
| Premium | $540 | 6 hours | $90/hour |
| Priority | $850 | 10 hours | $85/hour |
Scenario: The $500/month Break-Fix Shop
-You hire a local tech who charges $65/hour and promises to "only charge when you call." Here's what actually happens:
+You hire a local tech who charges $65/hour and promises to "only charge when you call." Here's what actually happens:
-Month 1-3: Quiet months. You pay nothing (or minimal hours). You think you're winning.
+ +Month 4: Your server crashes. No monitoring meant no warning. The tech bills 12 hours ($780) for emergency recovery. You lost 2 days of productivity (value: $5,000+ for a 10-person office).
+ +Month 7: Ransomware hits because patches weren't applied. Recovery costs: $8,500. Lost productivity: $15,000. Cyber insurance deductible: $10,000. Total cost: $33,500.
+ +Annual Total:
+Compare that to a GPS-Pro plan ($665/month = $7,980/year) that would have prevented both incidents through monitoring and patching.
+Industry averages for business downtime:
+| Business Size | Cost Per Hour of Downtime |
|---|---|
| Small (10-50 employees) | $8,000 - $15,000 |
| Large (100+ employees) | $100,000 - $500,000 |
Source: Gartner, IBM
+Source: Gartner, IBM
-A single 4-hour outage can cost a small business $32,000-60,000. Proactive monitoring that prevents that outage is worth 10x the monthly fee.
+A single 4-hour outage can cost a small business $32,000-60,000. Proactive monitoring that prevents that outage is worth 10x the monthly fee.
- -Average cost of a data breach for small businesses:
-What GPS-Pro includes to prevent breaches:
+Cost: $26/endpoint/month. Value: Potentially saving your business.
+ +When you pay an MSP, here's what you're actually buying:
+ +Technology Stack (per endpoint):
+Labor & Expertise:
+Business Overhead:
+A professional MSP typically operates on 30-50% gross margins after these costs. If someone is drastically cheaper, ask yourself: What are they cutting?
+ +Step 1: Calculate your hourly business value
+Step 2: Calculate downtime cost
+Step 3: Calculate incident prevention value
+Step 4: Calculate cyber insurance discount
+When we designed Guru Protection Services (GPS), we made specific choices based on 20+ years of watching IT companies fail their clients. Here's why we do things differently:
Our Choice: $19-39/endpoint based on protection tier.
+Why: You should know what you're paying before you call us. No games, no "call for quote," no hidden fees.
-The Alternative: Package pricing ("Small Business Plan: $500/month for up to 10 computers") forces you into rigid tiers. Have 11 computers? You jump to the Medium plan ($900/month) and overpay.
+ +How It Works:
+Client with 17 computers wanted business-grade protection. Competitor quoted: $1,200/month (forced into 25-seat package tier). GPS-Pro pricing: 17 × $26 = $442/month. Savings: $758/month ($9,096/year)
+The client paid for 17 computers, not 25. That's how it should work.
Our Choice: Physical office at 7437 E. 22nd St since 2001.
+Why: When your server dies at 3pm, you don't want a ticket system - you want someone at your door by 3:45pm.
-The Alternative: National MSP chains and remote-only providers. When you need onsite support, they dispatch a subcontractor who's never seen your network. Response time: 24-48 hours if you're lucky.
+ +What Local Means:
+A medical office's network went down during patient hours. We were onsite in 45 minutes. Diagnosed failed switch, installed replacement from our local inventory. Back online in 90 minutes total.
-A remote MSP would have taken 2-3 days to ship hardware and schedule a contractor.
+Local matters when every hour of downtime costs you thousands.
Our Choice: 24/7 monitoring, automated patching, proactive alerts on every GPS tier.
+Why: We make more money if your stuff doesn't break. That's the right incentive.
+The Alternative: Break-fix shops only get paid when you have a problem. There's no incentive to prevent issues - in fact, more problems mean more billable hours.
+ +How It Works:
+Our Choice: No long-term lock-ins. Month-to-month agreements.
+Why: If we're not delivering value, you should be able to leave. We earn your business every single month.
+The Alternative: 3-year contracts with early termination fees (often 50-100% of remaining contract value). You're stuck even if service is terrible.
+ +What This Means:
+We never want to be the company someone is trapped with.
+We never want to be the company someone is trapped with.
Our Choice: Bundled support plans with included labor hours at $85-100/hour effective rates.
+Why: You get better support at lower cost, and you know exactly what you'll pay each month.
+How It Works:
+ +| Plan | Monthly Fee | Hours Included | Effective Rate | Response SLA |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Essential | $200 | 2 hours | $100/hour | Next business day |
| Standard | $380 | 4 hours | $95/hour | 8 hours |
| Premium | $540 | 6 hours | $90/hour | 4 hours |
| Priority | $850 | 10 hours | $85/hour | 2 hours, 24/7 |
Compare to our full hourly rate: $150-165/hour for non-plan clients.
+Client on Standard Support ($380/month) used 3.5 hours in a typical month.
@@ -671,72 +845,314 @@ A client came to us locked in a 3-year contract with a national MSP. Service wasWhat Happens If You Go Over?
+Block Time Option:
+Our Choice: $25/month for up to 10 devices (network gear, printers, NAS, cameras).
+ +Why: Your router is just as critical as your server. If it dies, you're down.
+ +What's Covered:
+How It Works:
+If that switch had been in the Equipment Pack ($25/month), we would have been alerted to warning signs and replaced it during business hours. Cost: $300 for the switch (wholesale), zero downtime.
Every decision we made in designing GPS was about alignment:
+ +We're not perfect. But we built GPS the way we'd want to be treated if we were the customer.
+ +Why This Matters: If they won't share pricing up front, they're either hiding something or planning to charge different customers different prices based on what they can negotiate.
+ +Red Flags:
+Why This Matters: You want to know who's actually answering the phone at 2am when your network crashes.
+ +Red Flags:
+Why This Matters: Long contracts with penalties mean they're not confident in retaining you based on service quality.
+ +Red Flags:
+Why This Matters: Reactive break-fix means they profit when you have problems. Proactive monitoring means they prevent problems.
+ +Red Flags:
+Why This Matters: "Unlimited" is a lie. You need to know the real overage rate and policy.
+ +Red Flags:
+Why This Matters: "We're always available" means nothing. You need specific SLAs.
+ +Red Flags:
+Why This Matters: Basic antivirus isn't enough anymore. You need EDR, email security, employee training, and dark web monitoring.
+ +Red Flags:
+Why This Matters: Most cyber insurance policies now require MFA, EDR, employee training, and offsite backups. Your MSP should help you check those boxes.
+ +Red Flags:
+Why This Matters: You need flexibility to scale up or down without penalty.
+ +Red Flags:
+Why This Matters: An MSP experienced with your industry will understand your specific needs and compliance requirements.
+ +Red Flags:
+Why This Matters: This reveals what they actually value and how they differentiate.
+ +Red Flags:
+Arizona Computer Guru has been protecting Tucson businesses since 2001. We're not a national chain. We're not venture-backed. We're a local MSP that's been here for 25 years because we do right by our clients.
+ +Our Story:
+ +We started as a break-fix shop in 2001 - the kind we now warn you about in this guide. We charged hourly, we showed up when things broke, and we made more money when clients had more problems.
+ +That didn't sit right.
+ +In 2015, we launched GPS (Guru Protection Services) - our managed services platform - with a different philosophy: proactive monitoring, transparent pricing, and month-to-month terms. We wanted to align our incentives with our clients' success.
+ +Today we protect hundreds of Tucson businesses - from 5-person accounting firms to 100-employee construction companies. We've prevented countless outages, stopped ransomware attacks before they encrypted a single file, and helped local businesses meet cyber insurance requirements.
+ +We're proud to be Tucson's MSP.
+ +We covered this throughout the guide, but here's the summary:
+ +Tell us about your business:
We'll send you a detailed quote with our recommendations. No sales pressure. No follow-up calls unless you ask.
-Call: 520.304.8300 | Email: mike@azcomputerguru.com
-Web: azcomputerguru.com/quote
We'll send you a detailed quote with our recommendations. No sales pressure. No follow-up calls unless you ask.
+ +Call: 520.304.8300
+Email: mike@azcomputerguru.com
+Web: azcomputerguru.com/quote
We'll scan your network for vulnerabilities:
You get a detailed report with prioritized fixes. No obligation to use us for remediation.
-Schedule: azcomputerguru.com/security-assessment
-You get a detailed report with prioritized fixes. No obligation to use us for remediation.
+ +Schedule: azcomputerguru.com/security-assessment
+ +You don't have to do anything right now. Keep this guide for when you're ready to evaluate MSPs. Use the red flags, the questions, and the pricing benchmarks to vet whoever you're considering.
-If you end up choosing us, great. If you choose someone else but make a better decision because of this guide, we're still happy.
-If you end up choosing us, great. If you choose someone else but make a better decision because of this guide, we're still happy.
Arizona Computer Guru
-7437 E. 22nd St, Tucson, AZ 85710
+7437 E. 22nd St, Tucson, AZ 85710
Phone: 520.304.8300
Email: mike@azcomputerguru.com
Web: azcomputerguru.com
@@ -831,7 +1238,11 @@ A client came to us locked in a 3-year contract with a national MSP. Service was
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